Manufacturing isn't strengthening the middle class like it used to.
The term "middle class" has long meant everything and nothing in America. People whose incomes were below anything that could be defined as the middle used it to describe themselves in an aspirational way, or because it spelled respectability. People whose incomes were way above the middle used it to describe themselves because it made them sound down to earth, hardworking rather than products of privilege. That near-universal identification with the term made it a favorite of politicians. Say "I'll defend the middle class" and everyone thought you meant them.
But now, the middle class is being squeezed and enough people are starting to feel that squeeze personally that politicians are starting to look for another term that will make everyone think "that means me."
Hillary Rodham Clinton calls them “everyday Americans.” Scott Walker prefers “hardworking taxpayers.” Rand Paul says he speaks for “people who work for the people who own businesses.” Bernie Sanders talks about “ordinary Americans.”
The rhetorical shift is because of a real shift in how Americans think about themselves, the economy, and how they fit into the economy:
Candidates realize they cannot win election without widespread appeal among the 51 percent of Americans who, according to Gallup, identify as middle or upper-middle class. That compares with an average of 60 percent who identified the same way in polls conducted from 2000 through 2008.
But sociologists say such surveys obscure how Americans feel about the characterization — and how much the middle class has shrunk. They call the new economy an “hourglass” with a concentration of wealth at the top and low-paying service jobs at the bottom and “a spectacular loss of median-wage jobs in the middle,” said William Julius Wilson, a sociologist and Harvard professor. [...]
“People are looking for some way to say, ‘I recognize I’m a little below the middle,’” said Dennis Gilbert, a professor of sociology at Hamilton College who has published books on American class structure.
But whether a politician says "everyday Americans," "hardworking taxpayers," or for that matter "real Americans," what's important is what that politician is going to do about the increasing inequality that's making the rich richer and everyone else poorer. And for Republicans, when you cut through the crap, the answer to "what are you going to do about it" boils down to "make it worse."